Minneapolis restaurant that offered free meals to protest ICE raids announces closure

Latest & Breaking News on Fox News

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Modern Times Café, a Minneapolis restaurant that attempted to eliminate prices, has announced it will be closing for good by the end of the year.

“For the last six years, I’ve been trying to prove that Modern Times can continue to exist,” owner Dylan Alverson wrote on social media Saturday. “I’ve exhausted every option without compromising the core fundamentals that make Modern Times what it is.”

He added that he plans to spend the next two months celebrating the 16-year-old business and discussing ways for a business like his to continue.

MINNESOTA SENATE VOTES TO BAN ICE FROM WEARING MASKS, ALLOW RESIDENTS TO SUE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATIONS

“The only way for places like Modern Times to exist in the future is to actively challenge the reasons why it can no longer exist,” Alverson wrote.

Alverson announced on Instagram in January that his business, which rebranded as Post Modern Times, would operate as a “free and donation-based restaurant” where everyone would be welcome “except ICE” in protest of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations happening in his state, partly in response to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

People stand with signs at a makeshift memorial where a man was fatally shot.

“We absolutely cannot go on as we have. I am sick of generating money for the soldiers in our streets and for a government that won’t protect us — a government who is actively inflicting daily harm on its citizens,” Alverson wrote. “Effective tomorrow we are done making money for the fascists that occupy our city.”

The decision was made after Pretti was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents.

The Modern Times Café operated without prices for about six months until it briefly closed in July. The establishment returned to using prices once the store reopened in August but announced that it would continue serving 25 free meals per day.

By October, Alverson told The New York Times he was operating under a “zero profit margin,” hoping that his place could be used as a model for other restaurants.

BELOVED LA RESTAURANT HIT WITH SOCIAL MEDIA BACKLASH AFTER OWNERS SPOKE POSITIVELY ABOUT TESLA

‘WE’RE BACK TO COVID’: MINNESOTA RESTAURANT OWNERS SAY ICE ENFORCEMENT IS CRIPPLING THEIR BUSINESSES

“If I can create a fundraising mechanism that can raise money to provide hospitality, we can take that program and add restaurants to it,” Alverson said.

However, he acknowledged that the process was taxing for his staff and led to customers waiting up to two hours for a meal, half of which would usually be given for free. Neighbors also expressed concerns that homeless and drug-addicted people would take advantage of the offer.

In a comment to Fox News Digital, Alverson stood by his remarks to The New York Times and suggested that the bigger issue was other restaurants that were struggling.